Who Are The Most Active Social Networkers?

The picture you've just seen above already gives you hint to answer the title of this article. That's right! Women are nonetheless the most active social networkers as of today!

On a latest study reported, females ages 18-34 years old are the most engaged in social networking and which make up the majority of visitors to social networks and blogs. Aged 35-49 are also avid visitors: 4 percent are more likely than average to visit social networks and blogs than they do in any other site and 27 percent of these sites’ audience. The next paragraphs will get you into details about them.

Related: The Rise Of Mobile Social Media Use

These women are likely came from New England as the report suggests, with an average of 102 unique women who visit social networking sites and blogs. Not so far behind are women from South Atlantic and East South Central both has the same figure of average of 101 visitors who are also active in social networking. Women from Pacific and both of East and West North Central though are the third visitors likely to land on the sites mentioned.

As mentioned earlier, these active women who engage a lot in social networking are between ages 18-34 years old which has an average of 108 visitors. They are educated,  highly reputable women as the study indicates that these women has attained a bachelor's degree or even post graduate degree. There is no report on what particular field these women are into but I would like to think that they are involved in either SEO, content management, technical support or BPO or even testers. 

In terms of ethnicity, Asian/Pacific Islander women are the most active social networkers. About 103 in average of social networking and blog sites visitors are Asian while an average of 102 are either American Indian or Alaska Native. White and Hispanic women are also active with an average of 101 and 100 unique visitors respectively.

Indeed, women conquers social networking! To show this, here is a picture showing how women are active and even influential to both men and women online. Britney Spears is the most circled people in Google+ only followed by four other powerful and popular men despite the fact that the current percentage of gender who use Google+ is 69.0% men and 29.8% women.

The Rise Of Mobile Social Media Use

Year 2011 has been dominating for smartphones and tablets. In fact, more than half of all mobile phone sales are occupied by smartphones already. It is the year where consumers sought and realized that the use of these devices can bring yet another effective and convenient way of computing.

Powerful mobile OS (Operating Systems), highly interactive and useful applications, increased phone memory and the ever-powered storage over the cloud which allowed users flexibility to access files wherever, whenever! These are only among of a hundred reasons why smartphones and tablets are overtaking feature phones.

Related: Top Social Networking And Blogging Sites Of 2011

MOBILE SOCIAL MEDIA USE IS ON THE RISE

Whether it is a feature phone or a smartphone, the ability to access social media is a commonly used feature among mobile owners. About 43 percent of users access the web through mobile device such as mobile phones, iPad, e-reader and handheld music player. In the figure below, the 97 percent for computer use only suggests that still, computer is the most convenient way to use and access social media contents.

How do consumers access social media (Source:Nielsen)

SMARTPHONE FEATURES AND HOW USERS HAVE VALUED THEM

With wide capability ranging from the basics of making and receiving calls to checking out different places nearby down to mobile payment transactions and updating social status and news feeds plus the practicality of use over other devices, smartphones continue to be the most preferred gadget. The next figure below lists down the features commonly available in a smartphone device and how these features have valued by users.

While downloading and playing music is the most available feature for smartphones and global positioning system (GPS) is the most valued feature, applications for social networking has been the second available and most valued feature.

How does social networking compare to other features consumers have on
their phones? And what features do they value most?

MOST USED APPS FOR SMARTPHONE USERS

The on-the-rise popularity of smartphones and tablets which allow users install a wide variety of applications also made it possible for mobile social networking apps to be the third most downloaded app and used by smartphone owners. The most popular app for social networking across all operating system is Facebook  while Twitter is the number five most used app on Blackberry and Windows mobile operating systems.

Gaming apps (the most popular of which include Angry birds, Fruit Ninja and Tiny Tower) are still the most downloaded and used applications for smartphones While Weather applications are also highly in demand. Other categories for the most downloaded and used applications by smartphones users include music (Google Music is the most popular) , news, entertainment, banking/finance and dining/restaurant.

Top 10 Categories of Apps Used by Smartphones Owners Who Downloaded Apps

USERS WHO ENGAGED IN MOBILE SOCIAL NETWORKING

As teeny as thirteen (13) and eldest as fifty five and over (55+) years of age have installed apps for mobile social networking. The most highly downloaded app of which is Facebook followed by twitter with LinkedIn, a site preferrable for professionals, as the least most downloaded app. Ages twenty five to thirty four (25 - 34) have the highest percentage of social networking app users.

Percentage of Social Networking App Users by Age

Top Social Networks & Blogs Of 2011

Social media use has become the most popular activity online and the popularity continues to grow as users who register in different social media platforms such as Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn and many more keep rising. The Nielsen social media report for 2011 lays down the most popular and visited brands with snapshots of the current social media landscape and audiences particular in the U.S. and other major markets.

Not surprisingly, Facebook topped the list among websites which users spend more time and web use in general with an average of 53.5 million minutes spent in a month followed by Yahoo! and the web giant Google. The complete figures for web brands with most number of minutes spent by users are shown below

Top 10 U.S. Web Brands by Total Minutes, in Billions, Home and Work (May 2011)

Facebook also tops in particular for the most visited social networking and blogs sites of 2011 outnumbering blogger with the same figure of 53.5 million minutes. The exact figures for particular social networking sites and blogs are shown below.

Top 5 U.S. Social Networks and Blogs
Total minutes (000s), Home and Work (May 2011)

In terms of average number of unique visitors per month, Neilsen reported the table below showing the rank, website and the average number of unique visitors per month with Facebook still on the number 1 spot followed by blogger and twitter.com. Google+,  The fastest growing social networking site also made in the top 8 spot with an average of eight thousand unique audience share per month.

Source: Nielsen Data from January – October 2011, Home and Work Computers. Ranked on average monthly unique audience.

The recent report released by Comscore.com also showed a relatively the same figures for leading social networking sites with facebook as the undisputed on the top rank followed by twitter and Linkedin.com.

With more than 800 million active users everyday, there is no doubt that Facebook leads in all the charts for being the most visited social networking site but we can also expect that other related sites can also be successful on their own in the near future.

And as social media and blog sites continue to comprehensively include a wide variety of audience, challenges also continue to be of great importance for traditional media, retailers, and advertisers to understand how different consumer segments use and share content through social media and blogs.

A Complete Social Media Plan

A social media marketing strategy will fall face first if it doesn't have the right kind of plan. There are business owners who are constantly looking to make their social media strategies perfect. One way of doing so is by going back to the basics. You may have started out with your social media campaign just because your competitors did so. However, it will run out of steam once your immediate plan is fulfilled.

A Plan is Vital for Social Media Success

Here is what you need to do in order to make your social media plan, complete -

Approach

The approach should be properly discussed. If your approach lacks a uniformity across social media platforms, then you are bound to turn off a large section of customers and potential ones. Get down with your marketing heads and decide on the issues that need to sorted out. If you are wanting to keep it professional, then keep it uniform across platforms.

Content

The content is another important issue that you need to figure out. Now, there are three parts to this point: The What, the Where and the When. 

What - Content needs to be crisp and must reflect your approach. It should be interesting and must make the visitor happy to have found the content. 

Where - Where you publish the content is another important issue you need to figure out. The content must be published in a place where bulk of your customers are. This way, you will be able to get the requisite exposure.

When - You need to be absolutely sure about the timing of your audience. Networks like Twitter have a very small link-life and if your link goes unnoticed to some, there is a lesser chance that anyone would check it later on. Use a lot of tools that automate postings when bulk of the audience is online.

Reason

Throughout the campaign, keep questioning yourself on why you are taking a particular path. Keep experimenting with new stuffs and make sure that your campaign is completely different to what others have. 

All in all, a complete social media plan can never be permanent. Just like the social networks that come and go, you need to keep your plan open-ended for future growth!

Photo Credit - Image: jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Tips to a Rocking Facebook Experience!

Almost everyone has a Facebook profile these days. An average user has 130 friends in his/her list. However, there are many heavy users who have more than 300 friends in their list. They are often complaining about about how cluttered their newsfeed has become and how they wish they could make their list smaller. People soon created National Unfriend Day and what not! 

However, if you are on Twitter, Google+ and you blog often, then people from these networks are bound to drop in at your profile. And you like chatting up with them! But you don't want them to clutter your Facebook feed! What can you do? Well, here are some quick tips on how you can get back your Facebook account! 

Subscription

You can truly make some good use of this new Facebook feature! You can either subscribe to only important updates (let Facebook decide which ones are important), or you can unsubscribe from their posts altogether. 

Facebook will suggest you to unfriend them but then what the heck! They will not be hurt when they visit your profile!

Profile Review

This is very important. Often, users complain of being unnecessarily being tagged in pictures they don't want to (think x-mas wish, party pics, etc.). Turning on this feature will give you a complete control on what goes in to your timeline.

Even status updates with mentions will wait for your review! Just think about the possibilities!

Unfollow post!

Just cancelling the tag won't give you the peace of mind! Unfollowing the post will! Annoying comments of others may flood your notifications! So, why take so much of trouble! Just look for the Follow button just above the description! Hit it!

Close Friends

You may miss out on important status updates from your best pals. There are two ways to keep track of them! However, I will tell you the better route! 

Go to your best friend's profile. Look right and see the Friends tab. Click on that and select Close Friends. This will allow notifications to be sent to your whenever that person posts. 

Unfriend Finder

OK. Before I start off with this, a friendly suggestion - you'll not like finding out who removed you from their list. Either ways, there is no harm in knowing, right?

So, with Unfriend Finder you can get a separate notifications whenever someone deactivates (and then reactivates) their account and when someone removes you. This will also show you your pending requests to others. 

Publish Sync

This is one Chrome app that let's you sync to Twitter, Google+. I have found this app really helpful as all I need to do is simply check the box before posting. So, I can have a full control over what goes on Twitter or vice-versa.

Block Apps

If you don't like being invited from stupid games and other applications, then simply block them whenever you see them on your feed! They will not be able to send any request to your and your friend will never even realize this. Don't worry, you can turn them on later! Just look up in your Privacy Setting!

So, did you like the write-up? Do check out my wonderful sponsors and drop in your comment below! Thanks!

Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile NOW!

LinkedIn has achieved some stunning growth in the recent times. With 135 million professionals now having a profile on the social networking site, it's high time you did all the right moves to attract your potential employer or a business partner. How can you carry out these moves? Well here are the things that you need to focus on -

Profile Picture

The profile picture should be inviting but not informal. It should be professionally done and must have a clear, solo image of yours. This is the first thing that falls in the eyes of a visitor and so you need to focus on this!

Professional Headline

This is placed right beside your image and acts as a sort of headline for your profile. This means that not only do you score some SEO brownie points but you help the visitor understand your specialties in a couple of words.

Location and Industry

Gone are the days when the location didn't matter. Google now wants you to make sure that the location is properly given in order to aid searchability. So, be very specific about the area and the industry. This also helps LinkedIn suggest you the right groups!

Other Relevant Information

Your job title as well as the past job title will help Search Engine find your profile whenever someone types in the job profile. You can even get some link-back to your blog and website, from the profile itself.

The best part about this is that it lets you put in your Twitter id which you can later do a host of other stuff with!

Profile Summary

Another way to earn some quality SEO points is by providing the right kind of summary. This gives the visitor(and the search engine) ample idea on what you do and the skills that you have. 

Let lose your creativity but treat this space like your own personal advertisement. And you know what they say about advertisements - the shorter and sharper, the better.

Recommendations

Write recommendations and ask for them from your current and past colleagues. This normally is a sort of victory lap and the more you earn them from your colleagues, the better will it be for your profile. 

Recommendations substantiate the claims made by you in your profile summary as they are from others. However, you need to be careful to display recommendations from only those who hold a lot of ground. For example, a recommendation from your boss will work more than a colleague from some other department.

Linking Twitter 

Social media has only one disadvantage - it sucks you in. So, with the right kind of tools, wouldn't it be nice if you could sync your professional tweets on your LinkedIn profile? Well, now you can! 

If you don't want the hassle of a different account, you can sync the tweets with a #in hashtag. Only tweets with this hashtag will show up. Just think about the possibilities! 

Take Away

Join groups, comment on them and meet new people and make sure that you meet those within the industry. You will definitely enhance your circle of influence! 

Let's connect on LinkedIn! Cheers!

DigitalFilipino E-Commerce Summit 2012

This article will serve as an invitation to readers who might be interested to participate in the coming E-Commerce Summit 2012 to be held on February 24, 2012 at The Peninsula Manila, corner of Ayala Avenue and Makati Avenue, Makati City from 9 am to 5 pm.

Hosted by DigitalFilipino Club, the annual event will cater conference programs with highly interactive sessions from experts in e-commerce players and industry practitioners. 

Conference Programs included are:

• E-Commerce, Search, Local, Mobile, Social Models and Trends for 2012
• Gillian Muessig, Founding President of SEOMoz
• State of E-Commerce in the Philippines
• Jack Madrid, Founding President of E-Commerce Merchants Trade Association of the Philippines and General Manager of Multiply Philippines
• State of Digital Marketing in the Philippines (Making Customers Buy)
• Donald Lim, Managing Director, MRM Worldwide
• PANEL: Using Local Payment Platforms and Financing Methods in 2012
• Erick Kaludan, CEO of ShopInstallment

Other topics being considered in the agenda includes (to be updated as soon as the speakers for the event is confirmed):

• The Filipino Online Shopper
• Extending your presence to the mobile device (Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Phone)
• Taking advantage of the 2nd Internet (new e-commerce opportunities with IPV6)
• Where are the Customers? (how come we have low sales despite creating a useful website and social media presence?)
• Getting your Start-Up Running and Attractive to Investors 

DigitalFilipino Club members are entitled for a free conference pass provided that the participants shall be limited to:

• Corporate members (3 representatives)
• SME members (2 representative)
• Individual members (can attend but slot is not transferable)
• Additional club member and sponsor delegates are entitled to 15% discount. 

Registration form for the said event is available HERE

Pinoy Meets Siri

The advent of iPhone 4S in the Philippines has received an overwhelming acceptance and appreciation to many. Me myself have tried the gadget and I've been wowed by the handset especially when I tried to take that shot from it's 8MP camera - digicam can just be thrown away now and talk to Siri to search in the web and send a message.  However not everything is really incredible especially when it comes to Siri. She cannot understand some of the words you say to her and she will lead you to ridiculous actions if not horrible!

Talking about Siri, I tried to search on the web about some of the useful tips or vids on how to get with her, so that one day when I got my own iPhone 4S (whew!), I won't lose my nerve talking to her and she will follow actions as instructed. Eventually this brought me to unexpected while some are totally ridiculous results. So I thought to post it here so that I have my own collection of Pinoy videos with Siri.

If you don't know Siri yet, she is the most  'intelligent' (so far) virtual assistant of iPhone (available on iPhone 4S only) that allows you to do things on your phone such as sending and reading text messages, calling, setting up a schedule, send emails, search on the web, setting up an alarm, unit conversion etc.

Here are some of the videos of Pinoy dealing with Siri.

SIMPLE INQUIRY USING SIRI - In this vid, the pinoy user is asking simple inquiries to Siri and Siri will try to search it on the web and immediately display the answer on the screen

SETTING UP A SCHEDULE, REMINDER AND NOTE USING SIRI - This video is showing how Siri would set you up on a schedule and properly put your appointments in order. She would even tell you if there are conflicting schedules and ask you some confirmations. Siri seems easily got the Pinoy user talking to her in this vid.

SIRI READS TAGALOG MESSAGE - This is quite hilarious as Siri reads tagalog words. What's in the message is actually the 'bahay kubo' lyrics.

Okay, moving away from the serious vids, I went to this really funny and trending video of Filipino version of Siri - Vangie. The crafting of this video is indeed impressive that it was even featured in a national news  program in TV but this one is a total joke.

MEET VANGIE THE PINOY VERSION OF SIRI

VANGIE CHECKING THE LOCAL TRAFFIC CONDITION - A short clip of one of Vangie's feature - checking local traffic.

Going back, I found this video of ashleyslips and I was like, Woah, really? They are giving away an iPhone 4S?

GET A CHANCE TO HAVE SIRI BY WINNING IPHONE 4S - Yes! Globe Telecom is actually promoting their iPhone 4S offering and you have the chance to win iPhone 4S by joining this contest. watch this video of ashleyslips  to know the mechanics and as she nosebleed when she asks Siri to define the word 'life'!

That's all for now, I wish I could add some more videos in this post later.

Get your Social Media Strategy back on Track!

You found out that your competitors are now on Facebook(or Twitter, or Google+). You immediately create a profile page for your business there and follow certain people and drop a few links. And yet you don't get the required hits on your website. Worse, there isn't anyone to click on your promotional links. What is going wrong here? You were supposed to get additional traffic too? Yet your social media strategy is looking like a headless-chicken! 

Image courtesy - jm organ marketing

Here are the things you might have missed and need to figure out!

Target Audience

Of all the whole wide world, if you don't know where your target audience is, there is no way you can get your social media strategy off to a rocking start. A restaurant owner needs to focus more on FourSquare and Twitter. Similarly, a B2B company needs to focus on LinkedIn and Twitter. A big brand cannot afford to miss out on Facebook Pages. Tech enthusiasts should focus on Google Plus. Ask your marketing department to give you the right idea on the exact platform where a bulk of your target audience is.

Blog

You need to have a blog for your business. Having a blog can dramatically increase engagement (think SEO) as well as create a niche audience which wants to hear from you most of the time. You will know the exact number of people who are your loyal brand ambassadors and you can do all kinds of free publicity with them! They will be happy to return the favor!

Twitter Strategy 

Twitter has been phenomenal for businesses from the world over. If you are looking to engage with your audience, talk to them, track their opinions and make your brand viral quickly, then you can't miss Twitter. Take the help of tools and talk to people who truly matter - your audience! Be helpful. Share a lot and promote in a subtle manner!

Facebook Strategy

The biggest social networking site cannot be ignored! It has enabled companies to get closer to their customers and make them happy. Be it a coffee shop or a motivational expert, there are a number of success stories emerging from this website(do share your story below!). 

Overall strategy

If you are a business owner who is looking forward to a wonderful stay online, then you need to make sure to clear out doubts regarding your strategy. Will you be professional or will you be casual and personal when talking to a customer? Make sure that the marketing department is abreast with your branding strategy.

Conversions

At the end of the day, your conversion-rate needs to be high. This means that you need to convert your online customers into offline ones! You need to constantly review your campaign in order to increase this number!

Website

The design and the content needs to be thoroughly looked after. Try deep social media integration to your website as it helps in increasing the engagement level. Also, be sure about bounce-rate and do things that help in reducing it with the right content. 

Which Brands Rule Twitter?

Twitter has been a great place for brands to get in touch with the people who matter most - customers! You may have come across those brands too, may be even hired their services or bought their products. SocialFresh carried out an extensive research and finalized the best brands on Twitter. 

What attracted me to the race was that the ones with a lot of followers didn't win the top slot but the ones who were engaging. Those brands won who made sure that their customers were delighted by having them on their timeline! There are no Top 10 Brands, instead we have 12 with 5 Brands tied for No.8 Spot! 

Which brands have been the best of the lot? 

No.1 @JETBLUE

No.2 @SOUTHWESTAIR

No.3 @WHOLEFOODS


The brand with the most followers on the list is Whole Foods with 2,137,890

No.4 @REDCROSS

No.5 @DUNKINDONUTS

No.6 @STARBUCKS


Starbucks has been tweeting the longest than the rest of the lot and has the highest Klout score!

No.7 @PEPSI

No. 8 @AJBOMBERS

No.8 @BERGDORFS

No.8 @BLACKBERRYHELP

No.8. @CHIPOTLETWEETS


Chipotle ruled with over 63,598 tweets!!

No.8 @RSHOTEL

So, which Brand do you find the best? 

Facebook Timeline Faults and Why is it Scary

With the new Facebook Timeline roll out, you must be pretty excited about the new changes. By uploading your favorite Cover photo and updating a few life events, you must be having that new Facebook feeling all over again. Well, here is the bad news - Facebook Timeline can leave you potentially open to stalkers, not just those who are outside your friends circle, but those who are your current friends. How? Well, here is a personal experience -

Privacy

The new Facebook Timeline has effectively undone what Facebook has been trying to build. The previous version of Facebook profile wall could be completely blocked from certain folks. And friends could only see upto a certain extent of your Facebook posts. After a bit of scrolling, Facebook wouldn't show any more posts, even if you had posted something way back. 

With the current rollout, the entire profile will now be managed with MySQL giving you all the posts from any point of time on your Timeline. So, your night out with your friends 4 years back is now open to your current Boss and the posts which you wrote after your break-up can now be viewed by your colleagues(worst-case scenario!)

The Way Out!

There is only one. However, it's really cumbersome. You need to manually go to each post and turn the privacy knob. There are two ways to this torture -

• Go to your Timeline -> Visit your posts --> Notice the setting --> Update privacy setting

This will take a lot of time, especially if you post almost everyday. 

• Go to Activity Log --> Select "Your Posts" --> Go to your status --> Updating Privacy setting

This will clear out all the links and other stuffs that you have done and will give you just your posts. However, that being said, you will still have to manually update the privacy setting of each post.

Thankfully, the update won't change the existing settings with your albums. Just make sure to see how your profile looks to others through the "view as" tab. This will give you an idea on the posts/pictures you need to hide.

Hope this post has helped you to make your Facebook profile safe from stalkers. In case of any doubt, feel free to drop your comment below! Cheers!

Infographic: Evolution of Web Design

The aspect of the world wide web we have today in terms of functionality and design is indeed a result of a long growth and progress that many of us  witnessed through the years. 

And now that we are on the age of Web 2.0 where almost everything in the appearance of webpages such as buttons and banners are shiny, glowing and letterpressed and that the web has become dynamic enough to allow us create our own identity and speak on the web while browsing and sharing has never been easy as before because websites now have been formatted (at least mostly) to be  compatible with mobile devices especially smartphones and tablets,  It's just worthwhile remembering the transformation and diversity of web designs we have before and today! 

The inforgraphic below perfectly showed how web design has evolved over the years from the very flat and static, to stunning, dynamic and highly interactive designs.

Is Your Blog Fresh?

The freshness of a blog can go a long way in deciding how Google sees it. Yes! Google now wants your content to be fresh. If you are writing the same old stuff over and over again in the same old style that you have followed, then Google will definitely take note. But how can you make your content fresh? Well, it's very simple IF you are really keen in doing so.

There are a number of companies which are constantly changing their blogging structure to attrtact readers' attention. This is absolutely welcome! Then, there are those who engage with their fans by allowing their comments, howsoever negative, and continuing to create a dent in their brand image. How can you make your blog search-engine friendly? Well, the quickest way is by keeping your content fresh.

Read Up

The first step towards writing completely different and fresh content is by reading up on a whole lot of stuff. This will help you get the idea on the things that your market needs that will effectively put your blog on a new footing. Make sure to engage with fellow bloggers and interact with them on how they get the traffic.

Write

A lot! What you write will play a big role in deciding on the kind of freshness that your blog will have. Write in a way that helps readers get the idea quickly and they enjoy the write-up. Keep in mind that the article that you are writing needs to create a whole new impression in the minds of your readers. 

Listen

Never ignore your blog comments. If you want to provide fresh content, then the quickest way is by interacting with your followers and how they see your blog. This way, your business will definitely achieve the goal of "freshness".

In the end, you have to remember, there are hundreds of bloggers out there who are competing for the same audience. It is your writing which will set your blog apart from the rest! Cheers!

Admit It, You Hate Them!

A funny checklist but somehow true to the statement that "YOU HATE THEM!" Can you add some more?

☑ Kim Jong Il
☑ Khaddafi
☑ Osama Bin Laden
☑ Saddam Hussein
☐ Internet Explorer